

STREET OF THE DEAD: SAN JUAN TEOTIHUACAN, MEXICO 



The sacred pyramids of San Juan Teotihuacan, situated 27 miles northeast of Mexico 

 City, are reputed to be the largest artificial mounds in the New World. It is believed that 

 they were built at least 900 years before Columbus discovered America. 



tablished on the great roads, about two 

 leagues distant from each other. The 

 courier, bearing his dispatches in the 

 form of a hieroglyphical painting, ran 

 with them to the first station, where they 

 were taken by another messenger and 

 carried forward to the next, and so on 

 till they reached the capital. These cou- 

 riers, trained from childhood, traveled 

 with incredible swiftness; not four or 

 five leagues an hour, as an old chronicler 

 would make us believe, but with such 

 speed that despatches were carried from 

 100 to 200 miles a day. 



Fresh fish was frequently served at 

 Montezuma's table in 24 hours from the 

 time it had been taken in the Gulf of 

 Mexico, 200 miles from the capital. In 

 this way intelligence of the movements 

 of the royal armies was rapidly brought 

 to court ; and the dress of the courier, 

 denoting by its color that of his tidings, 

 spreading joy or consternation in the 

 towns through which he parsed. 



But the great aim of the Aztec insti- 

 tutions, to which private discipline and 

 public honors were alike directed, was 

 the profession of arms. In Mexico, as in 

 Egypt, the soldier shared with the priest 

 the highest consideration. The king, as 

 we have seen, must be an experienced 

 warrior. The tutelary deity of the Aztecs 

 was the god of war. A great object of 

 their military expeditions was to gather 

 hecatombs of captives for his altars. The 

 soldier who fell in battle was transported 

 at once to the region of ineffable bliss in 

 the bright mansions of the Sun. 



THE AZTEC COUNTERPART OE CHRISTIAN 

 CRUSADERS 



Every war, therefore, became a cru- 

 sade ; and the warrior, animated by a re- 

 ligious enthusiasm, like that of the early 

 Saracen, or the Christian crusader, was 

 not only raised to contempt of danger, 

 but courted it, for the imperishable crown 

 of martyrdom. Thus Ave find the same 



